Dog Days

The ancient Greeks in their attempt at science, looked up at the heavens and figured out why the days of late July and early August were so hot. Given their clumsy (to us) view of the universe, they saw that the brightest star in the sky was Sirius in the constellation Canis Major. As the seasons change the constellations rise and set in different places. The hotest part of the summer, Sirius rises and sets in daylight. The Greeks assumed that the heat of the Dog Star added to the heat of the Sun and thus, the days were particularly oppressive.

Meanwhile, the modern weatherman describes the situation as a batch of particularly warm air is sitting on top of the region, and the strong rays of the sun keep heating the air but not enough to cause widespread instabilities (thunderstorms). And this slug of high pressure is just going to hang out until a very strong front can knock it out of position.

Either way, it's hot, it's humid, it's oppressive. I love my AC.